Dark War Survival guide: Tips and tricks to quickly become a top leader

One of the most important things is building and expanding your base. This doesn't refer to just the Watch Tower or a particular building; you need to build everything there is to build. Actually, it's what I recommend you do.

The more Dorms you have, the more people you'll be able to accommodate, so basically, the more you expand, the better it is for your growing community. Make sure you build all the Dorms as soon as you can, because if you look at the top side of the screen, you'll see a number of villagers, which is the maximum your settlement can support.

You should also try to keep them happy, but that's something else we'll talk about in more detail below.

Overall, don't shy away from building everything from the very start - resources will come, and you want to unlock everything as soon as you possibly can!

Your resources consist mainly of Wood, Food, Iron, Electricity, and Coins. These are required to keep your population thriving, and managing them accordingly is crucial if you don't want to run out of resources or starve your people.

I suggest you pay attention to your food output, since that is one of the most important resources for keeping your villagers happy. Don't forget to check your inventory in case you have some unopened resource packs.

Assign more workers to your resource facilities, and make sure you have them maxed (as much as possible, at least). This will increase the resource output. You can also check the output by tapping on the resources icon (the wood icon) at the top of the screen.

Another way to gather resources and progress is by making the right decisions when discussing with your villagers. Each time you see an exclamation mark above a villager's head, you should tap on it. This will prompt a dialogue, which eventually gives you a few options.

Choose whichever you think is the most appropriate answer, and then you will receive some rewards. Among these rewards, you can also get premium currency and speedups, so make sure you do them as often as possible.

You start by having one construction queue, which lets you work on one building at a time. I suggest you spend your first 800 Crystals on buying a one-day construction queue, since that will let you work on two buildings simultaneously.

If you want to progress quickly, this is the way to do it. Of course, you can also opt for the permanent unlock for about $3, which I mentioned at the beginning of this Dark War: Survival guide, but that's beside the point.

Do the longest upgrades while you're offline

One key aspect of these upgrades is when you actually start them. At some point, some of the upgrades can take hours, even with help from your Alliance mates - which is why those upgrades that take up the most time should be started right before you close the game for the day.

As soon as you build the Alliance Center, you NEED to join an Alliance. It's not optional - it's something you should do if you want to grow your settlement. The moment you join an Alliance, you will receive your join rewards, which include some premium currency and resources, but that's not the only reason why it's something you should do.

Every member in the Alliance can request help from the other members, including you. That help will apply to the time spent building or upgrading something, which can greatly decrease the time you need to finish your construction.

I can't emphasise just how important this aspect is - think of it as free construction speed, but on steroids. You won't have to spend any speedups, you can request help for any building, and you can do it as many times as you want every day.

In turn, you will have to help your fellow Alliance mates, too, but all it takes is one tap on the icon that will pop up on top of the Alliance Center.

Oh, and once you unlock the Radar, you should also relocate your base (on the world map) somewhere in the vicinity of your Alliance. That will keep you safe from other players trying to attack.

After unlocking the Radar, you can start enjoying the slightly more complex aspect of the game, which is the "open" world. This is a feature where you can see the other players' bases and start working on objectives outside of your base.

You should first place your camp next to your Alliance mates so that those players looking to attack and raid you will find it harder to reach. Then, start looking into lootable resources. This option is especially useful in the late game, when you're strong enough to raid weaker players' bases.

Last but (definitely) not least, you should always upgrade your heroes. The heroes you have are not that great from the start, given that you get some default ones (from the quest). However, in time, you will probably get some top-tier ones, and those you should start upgrading.

I strongly recommend you start by levelling up whatever you have so you can pass the early stages, because that will play an important role later on. The sooner you pass the story stages required to complete some of the quests, the better.

Unless you spend money on unlocking the first hero pack, you probably won't have a Legendary hero joining your roster, so you'll have to upgrade what you have. Don't worry, though - that is still okay, because some of the heroes are great in specific situations, so having them upgraded will make passing them a breeze.

In case you're playing other similar games, we have a Silver and Blood guide and a Wittle Defender guide too.